We'll conclude Chapter 20 today and our study of the penalties for violating the laws the Lord gave in Leviticus 18.
Our passage is another of those we've found in Leviticus that makes us a bit uncomfortable to discuss, but God put it in the Bible for a reason. He's telling the Israelites how they are to behave when they arrive in the promised land---a land where "anything goes" as far as the tribes there are concerned. Most of the material we'll cover today has to do with violating the sexual prohibitions of Chapter 18. We looked at half of this material yesterday and will finish discussing it today.
Anything goes among the Canaanite tribes, including bestiality. It may be common in the land of Canaan but the Israelites aren't to consider it normal. "If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death, and you must kill the animal. If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." (Leviticus 20:14-15) The Lord wouldn't even need to bring up this subject if it wasn't a thing that actually happened sometimes. It's something so perverse that it should never enter the mind of human beings, but He's bringing this up because it does happen. It still happens in our world today. It wasn't that long ago in my local news that a man was arrested for having relations with his friend's dog. The friend noticed his dog had an injury and took it to the vet in alarm only to be told the dog had been sexually assaulted. The dog was given medical treatment and expected to recover.
So why does the Bible say the animal is to be put to death according to verses 14 and 15? I was not able to find out. I consulted a number of commentaries and some of them glossed completely over verses 14 and 15, not wanting to deal with such indelicate matters. Other commentaries made no statement regarding why anyone other than the humans involved in these deeds were to be put to death. Since the chapter we're studying has to do with consensual sexual acts and not acts in which one person is forcing his or her behavior upon another, my only guess is that perhaps in some cases the animals were willing participants and, if so, those animals who engaged consensually in these deeds are put to death because it is unnatural and unusual for an animal to have any interest whatsoever in sexual relations with human beings.
Moving along, we learned earlier in Leviticus that a man is not to marry a half-sister, although back in Genesis we found out that Abraham was married to his half-sister, but people aren't to do this kind of thing anymore, not even if they weren't raised in the same household as their half-sibling and barely even knew them growing up. Their genetic material is too similar to produce the best offspring due to the risk of birth defects being too high. If half-siblings disobey the Lord and have relations with each other or marry each other, they are to be excommunicated. "If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They are to be publicly removed from their people. He has dishonored his sister and will be held responsible." (Leviticus 20:17) This couple is banished from the community in shame.
The next verse relates back to the hygiene regulations we studied earlier in Leviticus. "If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them are to be cut off from their people." (Leviticus 20:18) I assume their isolation from the congregation of Israel is temporary in this case; in Leviticus 15:24 it says if a man lies with a woman during this time he will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just like the woman. If the man refrains from sleeping with his wife during this time, he will not be ceremonially unclean and can go about all his normal business, including visiting the tabernacle. When we talked about this subject a couple of weeks ago we talked about how difficult it was in ancient times to maintain enough hygiene to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens and we presumed this was the reason for the self-isolation. A number of viral and bacterial infections are spread through blood and these people were living in a time when showers and soap and sanitary products weren't available to them.
The rest of these prohibitions have to do with marrying or having relations with someone who is too closely related either by blood ties or by legal ties. "Do not have sexual relations with the sister of either your mother or your father, for that would dishonor a close relative; both of you would be held responsible. If a man has sexual relations with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible; they will die childless. If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless." (Leviticus 20:19-20) An exception to verse 20 would be if a man's brother has died childless, leaving a widow behind. A practice known as "Levirate Marriage" could be carried out, in which the surviving brother marries the widow and has children with her to carry on his brother's name. His brother's property would pass to the children of the widow and on down that branch of the family tree. The surviving brother could not pass his dead brother's property to his own children by any wife other than the widow of his brother. But if a man takes his brother's wife away from him while his brother is still living, the Lord won't bless this union with any children.
The Lord begins to wrap up Chapter 20 like this: "Keep all My decrees and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. But I said to you, 'You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.' I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations." (Leviticus 20:22-24) The tribes of Canaan have indulged in pretty much every sin imaginable. This is why the Lord is uprooting them from the land. He's given them many centuries to repent and they have taken no heed to His voice but instead have grown worse. The Lord cautions the Israelites not to fall into any of the ways of these tribes or else He will also uproot them from the land.
"You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between clean and unclean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground---those that I have set apart as unclean for you. You are to be holy to Me because I, the Lord, am holy, and have set you apart from the nations to be My own." (Leviticus 20:25-26) He says to the Israelites (and to those of us today who believe in Him as Lord), "Don't live like unbelievers. You aren't like them and you mustn't live like them. You are My very own children and the way you live must reflect your relationship to Me. I am not like the gods of the pagan nations; their gods aren't even real, but if they were, they wouldn't be worth worshiping and serving. They are as corrupt as those who believe in them. I am holy and different and I'm asking you to be holy and different."
The Lord concludes today's passage with a reminder about not dabbling in the occult. A thing like that will lead them down a dark and dangerous path quicker than they think. It's so dangerous that it has to be nipped in the bud by the harshest method available so it won't affect the entire congregation. "A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads." (Leviticus 20:27)
The Israelites have recently departed from Egypt, a land filled with idolatry. They are about to enter a land filled not only with idolatry but with all manner of sexual immorality. They are to stand out in the crowd by not going along with the crowd. If they mingle and blend in with the pagan tribes, they will forsake the Lord and take up idolatrous and immoral practices. This is why the Lord tells them time and again, "Be holy. Be holy. Be holy." That's what He's telling you and me today in a world gone mad, in a culture where pretty much anything imaginable is available in some form at any time of the day or night: "Be holy. Be holy. Be holy."
No comments:
Post a Comment